Subject: toa warrior
Culture: Samoan
Setting: civil wars, Samoa 19thc
Evolution:
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
"'O Le Toa' is a Samoan phrase that can be translated to mean 'the warrior' in English. The word 'toa' means warrior or champion in Samoan. The phrase 'O Le Toa' is used to refer to a person who is brave, courageous, and skilled in battle. In Samoan culture, being a warrior is considered an honorable profession, and warriors are highly respected.
"[....] In Samoan culture, being a warrior is considered a highly respected profession. Warriors are seen as protectors of their families and communities and are expected to be brave, loyal, and skilled in battle. The phrase "O Le Toa" is a way of acknowledging the bravery and courage of warriors and their important role in Samoan society.
"... Warriors played an important role in Samoan history. In ancient times, Samoan warriors were feared for their skill in battle and were often called upon to defend their communities against external threats. Warriors were also responsible for maintaining order within their communities and resolving disputes."
"Turner tells that the chief causes for wars in Samoa were murders, disputes about titles, or vanity (one chief wanting to show that he was mightier than another). Sometimes the parties arbitrated by paying fines, by carrying firewood, stones, and leaves, such as were used for roasting a pig, or by carrying bamboo knives. The two last acts signified submission and were interpreted as: “Here we are, your pigs, to be roasted if you please,” and “we have come, and here are the knives to cut us up with.”
"If the war was insisted upon the women and the children, the sick and aged were brought to safety and then no lives were spared. Wives of chiefs and prominent men followed their husbands in war, carrying their clubs and tending them if sick or wounded."
* Meyer 1995 v
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Headwear
* Museum of New Zealand online > Tuiga: A Samoan ceremonial headdress
"The tuiga is a Samoan ceremonial headdress. Wearing the tuiga is a privilege only extended to members of certain families with rank and status; the wearer or their family must carry the chiefly title with which the tuiga is associated. In the 19th century, tuiga were reserved solely for ali’i (chiefs) and their taupou (chiefs’ daughters) or manaia (chiefs’ sons). It was worn by ali’i in war and for ceremonial processions during ta’alolo (food offerings). It was also worn by high ranking figures in celebratory dances and for important occasions that were marked with ‘ava ceremonies.
"The older style of tuiga was a composite headdress made up of five parts including the pou (siapo foundation), the lave (triple staff or upright framework), the pale fuiono (nautilus shell forehead band), the ‘ie ‘ula (a bundle of red feathers), and lauulu (tufts of human hair). ....
"Functioning primarily as a symbol of chiefly rank, the tuiga was not only a ceremonial headdress, it was a royal adornment. As such, it brought together the most prized materials and resources in Samoan culture. The pale fuiono (forehead band) for instance, uses the septa pieces of at least 10-15 nautilus shells. Nautilus shell is so rare in Samoa they often had to be imported from Tonga. Only high ranking chiefs could engage in trade of this kind, as it required a certain degree of wealth and status. This applied even more so to the red feathers of the ‘ie ula used in tuiga. Red feathers were akin to gold in most Polynesian cultures; a commercial interisland trade between Tonga, Fiji, and Samoa was built on them. Their extremely high value meant that they could only be bought and used by chiefs. In addition to these prized resources, the use of human hair, although common enough to procure, was a material that was imbued with mana because of its link to the most sacrosanct or tapu part of the body; the head. The dyeing or bleaching of hair tufts also required considerable time and labour. The assemblage of all these valuable materials which were alike to ‘crown jewels’ in Samoa prior to European contact, designated the tuiga as a measina (treasure) of the highest order."
"The Tuiga’s earliest function was as a chiefly adornment for ali‘i pai‘a (sacred or paramount chiefs). The wearing of Tuiga marked these high-ranking chiefs as descendants of the maximal chiefly lineages (from which all sub-lineages in Samoa descend).
"As the products of prestigious or sacred bloodlines, these greatest of chiefs had ancestral mana and were viewed as inherently tapu. To mark their singular status, they were given the prerogative of wearing Tuiga. Over time this privilege was naturally extended to include their respective manaia and taupou, who were usually their own sons and daughters.
"In their original form, Tuiga were composite headdresses, made up of several individual parts that were attached to the head of the wearer to form a single structure. They were assemblages of the most precious, coveted, and often sacred materials known to Samoans. When worn together, they implied power, authority, and wealth. The lave (crest or upright framework of sticks) was usually made with a central plate of laumei (turtle) shell and decorated with circular insets of tifa (mother of pearl). The lauulu (human hair) bundles, also referred to as lauao, were intrinsically sacred because of the close association of hair with the head.
"In all Polynesian cultures, the head was seen as the most tapu part of body. As a result, the head and hair of a person was believed to be an embodiment of their mana. To further highlight this idea, the lauulu bundles were bleached in a process called fa‘aenaena to achieve a shade of reddish-light brown or blonde-brown.
"[....] The pale fuiono (nautilus-shell headband) was another crucial part of the headdress but was an adornment that could also be worn on its own. Fuiono shells (Nautilus pompilius), with their pearly blueish sheen, were prized due to their rarity in Samoan waters and were often imported from Tonga to meet demand. The parts of the nautilus shell used in pale fuiono were the innermost ‘core’ and septum pieces, arranged in two rows."
Clubs (Dil, Nifo'Oti)
"Weapons and warfare in nineteeth [SIC] century Samoa In the nineteenth century, Samoans engaged in spear throwing and club fighting contests but weapons were most often used in small scale skirmishes or ambushes. Fighting could be vicious and the injuries if not fatal, very serious. Battles were fought over major chiefly titles and to settle disputes or avenge insults. It has been noted that firearms were not widely used in this period and no one side had a monopoly on them. Some indigenous weapons had importance as heirlooms and were passed down and in some cases even named. The family war club was known as the 'anava, and it would be brandished on the malae of the village when a troop of warriors were setting out to march. In the twentieth and twenty first centuries, indigenous forms of weaponry were still made in Samoa for cultural perfomances and the tourist market."
* Brunt/Thomas/Mallon/Bolton/Brown/Skinner,/Küchler 2012 p277 (Nicholas Thomas, "European incursions 1765-1880" p270-297)
"The plates from Jacques Labillardière's Voyage à la recherche de La Pérouse (1799) depict two singular, presumably wooden 'clubs', carved in the forms of a European sword and cutlass. The Samoan nifo'oti similarly appear to be modelled on the big blubber knives of European or American whaleships, and date probably from the early nineteenth century. Whereas the latter are heavy enough to have been effective weapons, the former, going at least on the visual images, were surely not useful for fighting as it was customarily conducted, and may rather have been used performatively, like the dance clubs and dance paddles reported from many Pacific cultures. But both types mark an interest in the appropriation of European weapons and implements, which evidently predated the notorious interest in the acquisition of guns."
Necklace
* Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography > Pacific Islands Hall
"This type of necklace was popular and highly valued among the chiefs and high ranking man [SIC] throughout Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. Generally they were made by Tongan or Samoan artists to trade with the Fijians. Large teeth from the lower jaw of the sperm whale were split into parts, then ground, and polished to their present shape. After that the teeth were drilled, matched and strung on a fiber cord. Until well into the 20th century, these necklaces were valued as heirlooms, and worn on special occasions."
